Augusta Council oks sales tax paving program

After the Augusta City Council approved the projects on the 2014 Street Sales Tax paving program, Mayor Kristey Williams said $397,000 doesn’t go very far anymore.

Actually, it goes about five blocks.

The council voted to follow the Street Sales Tax Advisory Committees recommendations and pave Gregg, Kelly and Belmont avenues from Dearborn to Ohio. One of those six blocks was already repaved as part of the Kelly and Ohio intersection project last year, so the program will rehabilitate five blocks.

The Gregg Avenue project will cost about $71,500. The Belmont work will cost about $144,000. Kelly Street from Dearborn to Moyle will cost the city $102,000.

The other $80,000 will go to crack sealing and repairs.

If bids come in favorably, the alternate projects would be full depth repairs on streets in the Lakeside II addition.

Assistant City Manager Josh Shaw said the new pavement priority plan the council and MKEC Engineering developed in 2013 was very beneficial for the committee. That program graded all streets in the city so the committee could see exactly what the conditions are so that they could help develop a helpful and cost-effective program each year.

“With the South Ohio expansion project on the horizon, the committee felt like these connector streets would be very important during that construction,” Shaw said.

City Manager Gabe Gonzalez said the city is also working with engineers to discover any water or sewer projects that need to be completed in the area so workers don’t have to tear up new streets in order to complete other repairs.

Councilor Matt Malone asked if the water and sewer lines could be plotted on the same map as the street repair priorities to make it easier to identify areas of need in multiple areas.

Larry Henry with MKEC said a GIS program would be able to complete an overlay that included streets and all utilities and he thought that would be an outstanding tool for the city to use in decision making.